2011-01-07
It’s been two weeks since I moved in with my new host family in the inner-city neighborhood of Baixo Petroleo in Salvador, and I’m starting to wrap my head around what life here will look like for the next three and a half months. I live on the top floor of a three-story concrete building...
Read More2011-01-04
A student from Salvador asked me, while we were conversing about why exactly I’m in Nova Suica, what I bring to the community. At our first monthly meeting, during our Portuguese check-up with Marcelo, he asked us how we think we can contribute to bettering our communities. A doctor from the health post in Santo...
Read More2011-01-04
I want you to take a minute and think about what makes you you. We each have our own story comprised of experiences, friendships, families, opinions—our histories that have gotten us to where we are today. These backgrounds can be compartmentalized into what makes our identity. There are the physical aspects that may affect the...
Read More2011-01-04
Hoje, eu raspei manioca. Today, I peeled manioc root. It was a very MST day—perhaps more so than any I’ve had yet. It was laundry day, because it was water day. Translation? We washed clothes and sheets with the water in the storage tank on one side of the house, and then transferred water from...
Read More2011-01-03
Day 1: Before I settled into my apprenticeship, I took a tour of Ross Bethio with one of my advisors. When we walked into one of the rooms of the elementary school, sixty or so ten-year olds stood up and chimed “Bonjour Madame Prof” in relative unison. Hmm, I thought. This was not the apprenticeship...
Read More2011-01-02
I wake to a knock on my bedroom door. My host dad says, “Son las seis y media, ¡Vamos!” (It´s six thirty, let´s go!) At that moment I am recalling that I promised to help him gather “leña” (firewood) for several elderly neighbors. I was supposed to be up and ready at 6:30 A.M., so...
Read More2011-01-02
It’s December 30th, and still not even noon. I’m playing over this morning’s events in my mind as I sit in my room playing Free Cell on the computer, stepping outside my life for just a second to relax and reflect. I woke late, having been excused from work the night before by my boss...
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